"..the finite and the infinite can never be compared. So however protracted the life of your fame, when compared with unending eternity it is shown to be not just little, but nothing at all."....Boethius

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Jerry McGuire, 'A Quick Look at Love'

       How does the movie 'Jerry McGuire' define love?   Good question.  I think it starts by showing us what Rene Zellwiger thinks is love when she overhears Tom Cruise explaining his marriage plans.   This makes us realize that she is pretty much an 'old fashioned girl' with values in place.  The movie takes us all over in terms of relationships.  It shows us as   class (see workplace) differences in Cruise and Zellwiger.  We see values change as Cruise long time girlfriend Kelly Preston leaves him because he has changed.  We see Cruise change in terms of how he handles his clients.  Ultimately, we see how C  ruise change in terms of how he sees his life with Zellwiger.  It appears that the movie defines love in  Zellwiger's terms which is..... tradional and romantic. 

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Viewing Starbucks

Ethnography is a method of reporting on culture.  It has two parts.   The first part is a record of observation.  This involves literally viewing and recording what is seen.  The second part  is a description of what is seen through the lens of theory.  For this ethnography I have selected a Starbucks Coffee.   This is a free standing building located in a shopping center.  There are other commercial buildings located in this complex.  This study was conducted at 2:45 PM on Monday July 25th. 
Part I
What follows is a description of the room and the people that are moving in the space.  The room is  rectangular space of  about 40’ X 30’.  One side has a counter that runs the length of the room.  It is about 8’feet away from one of the long walls.  There is space behind the counter for people to move.  The floor is one color, brown.  It is composed of 12” tiles.  The front of the counter is a blond wood color. 
Moving behind the counter are 3 young men.  They are dressed in black clothes with green aprons.  One man has a white long sleeve shirt.  He also wears a green apron.  There is a pastry display counter with deserts and breakfast pastries.  Below there are bottles of water, fruit juice and pre-packaged sandwiches, plastic containers of fruit and containers of yogurt with granola.    There is a sign in front of the pastry counter that says ‘Bistro Boxes.’   In front of the counter are 3 baskets of varying heights filled with packaged coffee, and pre-packaged snacks. The room has windows on 2 walls.  One window wall looks out to the street.  The shades are ½ way down.  The other window looks out on an arcade and a parking lot.  The entrance door is in the parking lot window wall.  There is an air conditioner over the door.  Mounted on the glass next to the exterior door are signs indicating that there is no smoking in this business.  There is a sign advertising opportunities for employment at the Starbucks.  There is a cylinder shaped trash can next to the door. 
            The clear glass of the window is decorated with a frosted pattern so the view of the parking lot is partially obstructed.   The walls of this Starbucks are painted a medium grey green.  There is a washed oak wainscoting around the room.  The wall behind the counter has some shelving.   Packages of coffee are neatly lined on these shelves.  These packages have the Starbucks logo on them.  There are also shelves that contain glasses.  There is a sign identifying these as ‘Plastic Tumblers.’ 
            The cash registers (there are two) are obstructed from view by small displays of packaged cookies, instant coffee, small cards, and packaged nuts.  There is a platter of bananas.        
            There is furniture in this room.  Near the front door are 4 leather chairs.  There are small tables between them.  There is a person sitting in each chair.  Each person has a lap top computer.  One of the men is resting the computer on his knee.  One man has placed his computer on a table and the other 2 men are holding their computer in their laps.  One man is wearing ear phones and is tapping on his computer. 
            There are 2 men sitting at the tables near the door.  Each man is hitting the keys  on his computer.  I can see that each computer is a Mac lap top.   One is black and one is white.  One man is black and one man is white.  The white man is continually moving his knee up and down.  He has his head in his hand.  
            Two Asian ladies talk to the man behind the counter.  They then stand near a wall.  They are dressed casually in pants with a sleeveless blouse.  One woman has her hair pulled back.  The other has her hair down.  When they sit down at the table they lean in, talk and laugh.  They sip at their cups. 
            Behind the counter on young man writes something on the cups as people talk to him.  There is a woman with blond hair talking to the man at the counter. .  She is older, wearing a long turquoise skirt.  She turns around smiling and is now standing by the wall.   There is a young man and a young woman sitting at  a table together.  They are both looking down at their own I Pads.  They look up exchange words, laugh and then continue to look down at their devices. 
            More people enter.  They stand in line to talk to the young man who writes on the cups.  As people wait in line they don’t stand still.  They talk or look around. 
            One man leaves the leather chair and a young black woman reserves his space for herself by placing her notebook on the chair, then returns to the line. 
            The air conditioning is on.  I can feel the cool air on my feet.  I am wearing sandals.  A man enters wearing a brown suit.  He is talking on his cell phone.  He talks to the young man behind the counter and moves into a small group of people forming at the end of the counter. 
            A small boy has come in with a women and an older boy.  He has a tall iced drink with whipped cream in front of him.  Behind him are 2 teenage girls.  They laugh then talk to the young man in black. 
            There is music playing.  The music has an upbeat rhythm.  It is an undistinguishable tune.   There is a sign on the back wall that says at the top, “Starbucks: Shared Planet…..”    There is more, but I can’t read it. 
            A man approaches me and asks to borrow my pen….he writes something on a card and he thanks me.   
            Part II  
            Viewing this through the lens of Baudelaire, Baker reports that ‘crucial of modernism is….the  flaneur.  A flaneur, or stroller walks….. spaces of  the modern city experiencing the complexity, disturbances and confusions of the streets with their shops, displays, images and variety of persons.’  (Barker pg 183)  Further,  Featherstone adds  this ‘directs us towards the way in which the urban landscape has become aestheticized and enchanted through architecture, billboards, shop displays, advertisements, packages, street signs, etc.’  (Barker pg 183)         
            As the patron of Starbucks enters the environment he recognizes but can view the surroundings with a certain calm detachment. 
            Also, "identity projects and the aestheticization of daily life are linked together within consumer culture through the creation of lifestyles centered on the consumption of aesthetic objects and signs.  This is linked to a relative shift in importance in society from production to consumption."  (Barker pg 203)    For Baudrillard "commodities have sign values that confer prestige and signify values that confer prestige and signify social value, status and power."  (Barker 207)
            The mass marketing of Starbucks coffee  is aimed at the consumer, while masked in a non-threatening  surrounding. Regarding a postmodern environment Habermas has said, "the public organized itself and where public opinion is formed."  Also, "the increased commodification of everyday life by giant corporations transform people from rational citizens to consumers." (Barker 199) Thus,  people are comfortable and buy more coffee. 
             The patron can enter Starbucks, and stay in Starbucks to work or read.  Patrons are confronted with predictable behavior of other patrons.  "Identities are both unstable and temporarily stabilized by social practice and regular predictable behavior." (Barker 225)  The single patron becomes part of a family, part of a group.  "Collective identitiy exists, that it is 'a whole' expressed through symbolic rreprresentation." (Barker 227)   Thus,  the uniformity of signs, furniture and advertising adds to the comfort of the custormer. 


Baker, Chris. 2008, Cultural Studies, Theory & Practice, 3rd Edition, Sage Publications     

Sunday, July 24, 2011

An Interested Audience


Recently I watched scenes from American Psycho, a film based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis.  In one of the first scenes in the movie, a young man is washing his face.  He is also using creams and putting on a cosmetic mask.  It appears as if he has quite an extensive beauty ritual.  
Within in the framework of this movie this beauty routine may  mean certain things.  One thing being the cosmetic mask hides the vacant life that the character actually has. In this movie, what else can we surmise from this young man use of cosmetics?  Thinking about this film through the lens of feminist theory, may change or add to our understanding of the screenwriters’ motives.  I would like to explain how some different theories help explain why this scene is effective.
Feminist theory starts from a basic position that has historically portrayed woman as the ‘other.’  The Feminist theory maintains that women are outside of what is considered the main. Simone de Beauvoir, an early Feminist, maintained that “legislators, priests, philosophers, writers and scientists, have striven to show that subordinate position of women is willed in heaven and advantageous on earth.”  She says that woman “represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria”
 Women therefore, because of secondary position or inferior status are constantly in need of products to aide in their maintenance.  It is women who commonly use cosmetics, creams and coloring to attain wholeness, not men.   Women are a huge market for the cosmetic market. 
Shifting focus to the movie once more, the beauty routine of this young man seemed useful to the screenwriter  portraying  him in a certain light.  The author was using ‘signs’ as discussed by Ferdinand de Saussure. In the movie the screenwriter was using cosmetics as a ‘sign.’
Saussure believed that the structure of language is what has importance.  In doing so he divided the ‘sign’ into 2 parts.  The ‘signifier’ and the ‘signified.’  The first being the code used and understood to represent the second.    According to Barker, “Culture is said to work like sign language.” Put another way, it appears, there are signs in culture besides language that enable a person to immediately understand their meaning. 
This particular example could further be examined using the theories of Roland Barthes.  Barthes examines ‘myths.’  He says, “Myth has the task of giving a historical intention a natural justification…”  (Women use cosmetics)  The author of this movie, Ellis, is using this ‘myth,’ that women are the ones who should be using cosmetics, to make a dramatic point in the story. 
Regardless of what the message the author has ultimately wanted to give to the audience, the interesting idea to me is that the author has used this device at the beginning of the story.  By doing this he seems to be disturbing the established concepts of what is socially accepted.  By doing this he has engaged the audience by changing and ‘playing with’ the accepted cultural signs.  He is pulling the audience into the story.  This forces the audience to ask, “What’s next?”

Barker, Chris, 2008. Cultural Studies, Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. Los Angeles,  Sage Publication
De Beauvoir, Simone, 1949. The Second Sex. Introduction, Woman as Other

           

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Welcome!  This blog will be a window on how I view the world.   Lots to see!  Plenty to comment on!   Let’s keep Boethius in mind and not take anything too seriously.         
Looking around and seeing what is out there is one thing, but how do we take it in?   How do we absorb what is around us?  Do everyday things have meaning? 
For myself I have simply enjoyed the journey.  Reading, music and traveling have provided me with plenty of things to think about.  Not to mention all the people in my life!  
An article called, “The Politics of Culture,” by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan tries to provide an explanation and framework for how we think about ‘what’s out there’ or ‘culture.’   To me this article was very thought provoking.  The article provided a little history on the study of the idea of culture, and how these ideas have morphed into our thinking today.    Is there a need for this, or can we just take our journey and enjoy the view? (or not!)
The idea of a framework and explanation for culture, what it’s all about, is not new of course.  Theorists have been doing this sort of thing for years.  The prevailing view is that ‘yes,’ there is a need and here is how it works.  Or rather, pick your theory.  I think the theories are just labels, dressed up in fancy clothes. 
There is apparently a need for labels.  Not enough that we enjoy, participate, appreciate or produce in our daily lives, but we must also label as well.  
Labeling seems to put ‘culture’ in an objective place which allows it to be poked a bit.  We can discuss it and dissect it.  Culture objectified, can be judged.  Aspects of culture can be elevated or rejected. 
Labeling aspects of what is ‘out there,’ can also connect to labeling people.  This of course is a connection to the political.   Let’s consider High and Low culture.   High culture (what we understand as something created to reach high standards of something or other) was at one time created exclusively by and for the very wealthy, and was understood in terms that only they could understand.  This was a great way to separate them from the lower classes.  You can see that this could be considered a very political motive!  Today, ‘objects of desire’ are created by large corporations, and those that seek these things are as pawns to what is produced.  These consumers are just being led around.  Their taste appears to be manipulated.  This begs the question, ‘who is the taste maker?’ And further, if the very wealthy are identified with ‘High Culture,’ that must leave ‘low culture’ to the masses. 
Labels also provide instant recognition by providing a short cut for identifying friend or foe, similar or dissimilar.   It lets you know when someone ‘speaks your language.’  For example, ‘Did you like that movie?’  The answer, ‘NO!’  This would let you know that person could be very different than you are if, indeed, you had enjoyed that film. 
My first response to all this is that it takes the fun out of things.    Can’t we just take or leave something? (A movie, music et al.)   Thinking it through, however I’ve decided that to study or understand this business of labeling and culture study may actually enrich the whole journey.